Regular readers of this site know that over the years we’ve occasionally mentioned the following tidbits:

1.  We’re no fans of conference tie-ins with bowls.  We understand the business of it — conferences are guaranteed slots and money, bowls are guaranteed dancing partners and visiting fans — but we don’t enjoy watching the same games year after year after year.  If you’re reading this site, you’re likely an SEC fan.  So “SEC versus Big Ten” in three Florida bowls every January 1st afternoon is probably just as old to you as it is to us.  Seriously, doesn’t it seem as though Georgia and Michigan State have played each other in about five straight bowls?

2.  We say open up the bowls just like the old days.  You remember… back when an SEC school might go to Atlanta one year, El Paso the next, and then on to Jacksonville the next.  There was always some new opportunity and the suspense of learning a team’s bowl fate was part of the late-season fun.  That said, the only negative with the old system involved under-the-table agreements made in early-November.  Inevitably, some team would sign on with a bowl, then lose its last two or three games to turn what looked to be a great matchup into a total yawner.

3.  The way around that problem would be to create a bowl draft, if you will.  No backdoor deals.  Just a live, on-air draft — think ESPN wouldn’t air that? — involving all of the bowls based on their combined payouts.

Right now would be a great time to put the MrSEC plan into action, too.  At the end of the 2014 season, college football will launch a new age.  Two bowls will act as national semifinals in a first-ever FBS playoff.  The four participants in the playoff will be selected by a committee.  That selection committee will also fill four more bowls with the next eight best teams in the country.  The semifinals will rotate through the same six bowls X amount of times over a 12-year period, depending on the game.  It’s believed three of those “big six” bowls will be played on New Year’s Eve and three more on New Year’s Day.

Those six bowls will likely include the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Cotton Bowl.  One of those will become the new SEC/Big XII “Champions” Bowl.  For argument’s sake, let’s say the Cotton becomes the “Champions” Bowl.  That leaves one more slot available in those six major games and we’ll tab the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta for the final spot.  From their kickoff games to the SEC Championship Game to their postseason bowl, the capital city of Georgia is pretty proactive when it comes to college football.  Now, the Outback Bowl in Tampa or the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (Houston) could work their way into that sixth slot, too, but again — for the sake of argument — we’ll just pretend Atlanta gets the nod.

So six games are off the table: Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton (“Champions”), and Chick-fil-A.  There will be no BCS National Championship Game in the new format as the winners of the semifinals will meet in a title game that will be bid out to a different host city each year.  So that’s one less bowl than we have now.  We’re left with 28 additional bowls to be filled.

Just imagine this scenario: On the Sunday following the conference championship games in 2014, the selection committee and representatives from all 34 bowls are seated inside one massive theater (a la the NFL draft).  The committee members announce their picks for the four big bowls.  Then they announce the participants in the two semifinal bowls.

With 12 teams off the draft board, the remaining bowl committees start poring over their data.  They know which teams are ranked highest.  They know which schools travel best.  They know which schools bring in the biggest television ratings.  Armed with that info, the final 28 bowls begin picking their matchups… either for good TV numbers to satisfy their title sponsors or for tourism dollars to please their civic leaders.

It would be a combination of college basketball’s Selection Sunday and the NFL draft.  Millions would watch.

The selection order for the draft portion of the event would be determined by the combined payout of each game.  The more a bowl pays out to the schools it invites, the higher it’s slot in the draft would be.

Now let’s have a little fun just to see how this would all work.

We’ll use Jerry Palm’s 2012 preseason rankings as our guide.  We’ll act as though his ratings are dead-on and that his top 68 teams will all finish bowl eligible.  Then we’ll try to imagine how each bowl committee would pick its teams from there.  Further, let’s assume that the bowl tie-ins for the big games will look like this: Rose (Big Ten/Pac-12 champs), Cotton (SEC/Big XII champs), Orange (ACC champ/Notre Dame with 9 wins or more).  Other leagues like the Mountain West or Big East might line up spots for their champions, too, but for now we’ll just lock in those five leagues and Notre Dame as there has already been plenty of speculation that that’s exactly what will eventually happen.  That would leave the Sugar, Fiesta and Chick-fil-A wide open for selection committee assignments.

Here’s how we think a bowl lineup created by a selection panel and draft would look.  Just to be clear, we’re using Palm’s 2012 projections, 2012′s bowl lineup and combined payout numbers, 2014′s assumed playoff and “big bowl” plan, plus our own idea of a draft for the remaining 28 smaller bowls.  For kicks, we’ll give the first semifinals to the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls.  Also, in this scenario we’ll pretend Notre Dame does not win nine games and gain entry to the Orange Bowl.  Here goes…

One can argue over whether a certain bowl would pick Team A over Team B, but that’s not the point of this exercise.  The goal is to show that with an open, draft-like system, fans could visit more cities, teams could face more varied foes, and bowls could create more desirable matchups.

Will something like this ever come to pass?  Never say never.  After all, in two years we are getting a playoff and no one would have dreamed a year ago that that could or would turnaround so quickly.

With conferences now looking to control more of the cash by owning their own games, it’s likely that the old “you have to guarantee us you’ll sell 10,000 tickets” days are over.  The schools have more of the power in the new system.  So the bowls might not put up as much squawk over losing those automatic conference tie-ins as one might think.

And if a draft forced bowls to up the amount of money they pay out, schools and conferences might be willing to part with the guaranteed tie-ins, too.

Likely?  No.  But we certainly believe our plan would make for a more interesting postseason year-in and year-out.

1. Isaiah Crowell and Alabama State: “There’s a fine line between acceptable and dangerous risks.”

2. Former Auburn running back Michael Dyer may never play at Arkansas State but he’s already had an impact at Gus Malzahn’s program.

3. Georgia coaches Mark Richt and Mark Fox: “The pair are unusually close, and talk often, whether it’s about their jobs or smaller stuff.”

4. The one player John L. Smith would most like to clone at Arkansas - it’s not who you think.

5. Why Arkansas at South Carolina is a top 10 game on the SEC schedule this fall.

6. With Mizzou and Texas A&M now in the fold, the focus shifts to improving the TV schedule, especially late in the season.

7. A new conference for the Tigers but an old rivalry still captures headlines.

8. What does Florida need to win the SEC East? “The Gators don’t need their quarterback to be Andrew Luck to win the division, but they need significant improvement over what they had there since Tim Tebow left town. ”

9. Kentucky defensive coordinator Rick Minter previews the 2012 defense.

10. Andy Staples on the value of a highly-prized recruit: “How many scholarships would Tim Tebow have been worth? Cam Newton? Ndamukong Suh? All players aren’t created equal. Some are worth far more than others.”

11. An upgrade to the gameday atmosphere is on schedule at South Carolina.

12. Ole Miss punter and former NCAA punting champion Tyler Campbell looks to regain his form.

13. The Dominican National Basketball Team is one win away from the Olympics.  John Calipari is their coach.

Extras 

14. The dangers of turning over your athletic department to a billionaire donor – T. Boone Pickens and Oklahoma State.

15. A new report on the Jerry Sandusky investigation could be made public next week – “expected to be tough on Paterno.”

16. The Big East remains the only Big Six conference without a high-profile bowl game tie.

17. A casualty of the Internet age – baseball card collecting is a dying hobby.

18. One million pushups in a year.

19. 100 things to eat in Memphis before you die.

1. A question for college presidents and their football playoff idea: “Except for one more day of football, what, exactly have they given us?”

2. Two new logos on the SEC web site today.

3. The road to the SEC for Missouri and Texas A&M - a timeline of how we got here.

4. “I think everyone is really juiced to see the best on the regular basis.”

5. Advice from former Alabama coach Mike DuBose: “Whether you’re an assistant coach or whether you’re a head coach, once you step into the Southeastern Conference, you just understand that a little bit more is expected.”

6. New Aggies AD Eric Hyman: “We’ve got to buckle up and be ready to compete at the highest level.”

7. “The good news is it’s the best league in the country,” said Hyman. “The bad news is it’s the best league in the country.”

8. Stepping out of the Longhorns shadow.

9. “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Tiger.”

10. For many fans in the southeast, Missouri will just be “the other Columbia” and “the other other Tigers.”

11. AJ McCarron – “the best NFL quarterback prospect Alabama has produced since Richard Todd in 1976“?

12. Some SEC schools have had great success sending quarterbacks to the NFL.  Others, not so much.  “Remember Bill Troup? How about Joe Reed?”

13. Alabama-LSU gets a lot of attention but it’s just one of many intriguing matchups this fall in the SEC.

14. Could Mississippi State lose at Troy?  “The perception is that MSU’s non-conference schedule sets the Bulldogs up for an early season run.”

15. A home-and-home with Texas coupled with brutal SEC competition has new Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze rethinking things:  ”I would prefer to see us schedule a little differently.”

16. Is Vanderbilt a trap game for the Rebels?

17. Why Vanderbilt-South Carolina is an interesting matchup: “What better way to start the college football season than a Thursday night game that could change the way we look at the SEC. “

18. With Isaiah Crowell gone, what’s left in the Georgia backfield?

19. Why South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney is one of the premier players in the SEC.

20. What has new Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Ray learned so far? “What sticks out is the competition in recruiting…”

21. Former Bulldog Rodney Hood is headed to Duke. Only 1 of 5 members of 2011 MSU class still left.

22. Does Kentucky coach John Calipari develop players for the NBA?  Jay Bilas: “Anthony Davis was a pro no matter where he went to school,” Bilas said. “That’s true of most of them.”

23. Why Calipari has an edge over Nick Saban. “Anything Saban can do, Cali­pari can do at least as well and, in some cases, better.”

24. What would an all-Kentucky NBA roster look like?

25. How cuts in Tennessee’s budget impacted walk-ons in the basketball program.

26. Mizzou basketball coach Frank Haith is taking advantage of new NCAA rules regarding summer workouts.

Extra

27. Dennis Dodd: “Penn State must pay. Take your pick: TV ban, postseason ban, shutting down the program.“

For the past few months, folks around college football have whispered that a new playoff television package would likely fetch somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million per season.  Nice neighborhood, eh?  Well, if The Sporting News’ Matt Hayes has a good source — and he usually does — then that $500M number is very much real.

The BCS deal paid out $174 million last year.  That number could triple depending on the length of the new TV deal as well as how much value is assigned to the new semifinal games — something we’ve never seen before.

Ten years.  $500 or so million.  Yep, that could mean $5 billion going into college football’s pot to be divvied up among the conferences and schools.  To put that into perspective, if all 120-125 FBS programs got an even split from that $500 million payout on a yearly basis, that’d be give-or-take an extra $4 million per school.  (Of course, schools in the five big conferences will get more than that with the guppies of the world getting a smaller share.  But still.  Also, that’s not counting the money that the bowls will keep and other various expenses, but you get the point.)

We’ve noted many, many times before that the presidents have turned down enormous potential payouts from television for a college football playoff in the past.  But this time around — as Hayes’ source puts it — “They’d be throwing away $2 1/2 billion… at least.”

That kind of money could slow expansion down as the five biggest leagues might not need to add any more schools to their rosters and schools might not be forced to leap from one big conference to another.  Also, a 10- or 12-year TV contract could lock in the four-team system and prevent “playoff creep” and expansion until the current batch of presidents have departed from their current offices.

That’s three reasons — one of them potentially worth $5 billion — that for the first time ever the university presidents might just take the money and run when it comes to the dreaded P-word.  Then again, never underestimate the stupidity of people in groups.

Yeah, $5 billion makes it a slam dunk on paper.  But we’ll pop the champagne once the votes are counted.

It’s called “Project X” around the SEC office.  It’s the new — potential — partnership between ESPN and the SEC on an SEC-branded television channel that could launch by 2014 or shortly thereafter.

Project X got tongues wagging last week in Destin and one of those tongues belonged to outgoing Georgia president Michael Adams, who sounded a bit like a man trying to work in an “I told you so.”

“We’re strong enough in the marketplace that I have long advocated for an arrangement (in which) we look for a media partner where we would own at least 51 percent of the deal and create a network.  I raised that issue when we did the last TV deal (in 2008), but I was a minority view at the time.”

So what’s changed between 2008 and 2012?  Plenty.

In ’08, the Big Ten Network was struggling.  That conference was fighting to get cable clearance across the country (just as Texas’ Longhorn Network is currently fighting for cable placement).  But soon after the SEC inked its deals with CBS and ESPN — which has provided a greater amount of national coverage for the league — the Big Ten got wise.  Jim Delany’s league partnered with Fox and suddenly their channel — now packaged with other Fox properties — began to get more and more clearance on more and more cable outlets.  And that’s meant more and more money for Big Ten schools.

Or as Florida president Bernie Machen put it:

“We (the SEC) sort of broke ground on major media contracts, and I think the others have followed along and actually moved the ball a little bit further.”

So now, four years later, the SEC is talking with ESPN about a new cable network.  Question is: Has the league already missed its best chance?

With the global economy far from healthy and with additional sports cable channels launching every day, the sports cable channel bubble might soon be on the verge of bursting.  ESPN has had troubles getting the Longhorn Network on cable systems in UT-mad Texas.  What might they be thinking, then, about creating another new property with the SEC?  When they already own the rights to SEC games through 2023-24 anyway?

While that’s the potential negative, there is a positive.  A huge portion of Big Ten revenue is derived from its network.  The SEC gets its biggest bucks from the two network deals it signed back in ’08 (plus college sports greatest amount of national exposure).  So an SEC Network wouldn’t necessarily need to produce as much cash as the Big Ten Network just to keep the SEC on par or in front of Delany’s league financially.

Obviously, the goal would be to break the bank and considering the number of cable households now within the SEC geographic footprint as well as the league’s overall brand equity, that goal could certainly be met.  But if ESPN fears now’s not the time to go all-in with yet another network, it would be possible for both parties to scale back their goals and simply look to accentuate their income, not double it, triple it or more.

As is the case with nearly every financial comparison made between leagues, schools and networks, we’re not talking about an apples-to-apples comparison here.  Example: If you make $10 milion per year (with eight of that coming from your own network) and I make $11 million per year (with 10 of mine coming from outside contracts and just one coming from my own network), I’m still bringing in more cash than you are overall.

So comparisons between real Big Ten Network revenue and potential SEC Network revenue should always be viewed through the lens of each league’s overall intake.  And if ESPN is a little skittish these days about going all-in on yet another new network — in this economy — it’s possible both the the four-letter network and the SEC could dream up a smaller-scale plan that would in the end be more cost-effective than launching a full-fledged network.

There are always many, many options on the table.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive sat down for a Q&A session with the media yesterday.  Tony Barnhart of CBSSports.com has the particulars.  We’ll just hit on some of the highlights:

Asked if he had any doubt that a four-team playoff was on the way:  “I’d say the right word to use is ‘hopeful.’  We are committed to the four-team playoff.  We’ve been talking about it for four years and that is where we’re comfortable.  We support the four-team playoff.  How it’s done and where it’s done are issues we all have to discuss as a group… There are a number of issues that the commissioners still have to work through.  I’m hopeful that somehow we can find a place where we can all be comfortable. But our conference believes that if you’re going to have a four-team playoff then the best four teams should be chosen for that playoff.”

Asked would he compromise on a 3 champs plus a wild card plan:  ”I support taking 1-2-3-4.  I think that is the simplest solution and the one our fans will best understand and accept.  I believe that we are all guardians of the game and we should do what is best for the game.  Yes, we are responsible for our own conferences.  But I think we have to be careful about gerrymandering who should be in the playoffs.”

Asked twice about a possible SEC Network, Slive said on both occasions:  “We are currently talking to our TV partners about our TV future.”

Asked about further expansion:  “I was comfortable at 12.  We were comfortable at 12.  It’s institutions like Texas A&M and Missouri came and said they were interested in our league… We weren’t in an expansionist mode, and we aren’t in an expansionist mode now.”

It must not be easy running the NIT.

Since the NCAA took the 75-year-old tournament over just a few short seasons ago, the tourney has improved.  A great deal, in fact. 

In came a true bracket with actual seedings.  Out went the ol’ wait-til-the-first-round-is-over-and-then-match-two-teams-together-that-will-boost-attendance nonsense.

In came actual home court advantage for the higher-seeded teams (when possible).  All regular-season conference champs who lost their league tourneys would get automatic bids, too, cutting down on the number of .500 power-conference teams and ensuring some better basketball (though with slightly smaller schools).

But the NIT also inked a deal with the devil, er, I mean ESPN.  If you’ve read this site for long you know that we believe — like, oh, so many others — that ESPN embodies the greatest conflict of interest imaginable.  They own sports and yet they’re supposed to honestly cover sports at the same time.  And in owning the TV rights to the NIT’s games, they’re able to hold final sway over the how the tournament actually operates.  Might as well call it the ESPN Tournament (and don’t think that’s not coming).

Case in point: Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State won their first-round NIT games on Tuesday night.  All day Wednesday, they wondered if they would play on Thursday or Sunday… with one possibility being an 11am ET tip time.  Boy howdy, that would have done wonders for ticket sales in the Bible Belt.

By Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA had listed the game as a Friday matchup on its official website.  But behind the scenes, UT officials knew they didn’t have access to their own arena for Thursday or Friday.  (Another problem with the NIT, schools start scheduling events for their gyms as soon as the regular-season ends.)  So not until midnight this morning did Vol fans learn that their squad would host MTSU on Monday — which was never really discussed as a possibility — at 7pm.

ESPN wanted to wait until all of the first-round games were complete before slotting all of its second-round matchups.  OK.  But seeing as how the times were announced immediately at midnight, it sure looks like some game times could have been announced much sooner.  That would have at least allowed some schools schools and their fans to better plan for those second-round games.

As it turns out, the SEC got lucky because its game will air on ESPN (not 2 or the U) at 7pm.  That’s good exposure for the last remaining league team in the NIT field.  But it was a ridiculous wait to learn of that fact.

Oh, and that 11am Sunday slot?  Congrats to Drexel and Northern Iowa.

Speaking like a man who’s had his share of run-ins with the NCAA — well, at least two programs he was coaching have had run-ins with the NCAA — Kentucky’s John Calipari is predicting that organization’s eventual demise.  Calipari told Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News (hat tip: John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader) that the NCAA’s days are numbered:

“They’re not going to be around long. The NCAA will not. Before I retire from coaching, they will no longer oversee college athletics. They will, but it won’t be the four power conferences—they’ll be on their own. And the main thing is, do you really care about these kids? They’ll get mad that I say it. The NCAA Tournament, for example. It’s more about the selection committee getting on TV, everybody getting their tickets on the aisle, down low, all the parties they go to, the traveling. But we don’t take the parents of the participants. But they take their kids and their families.

The officials will get better hotels than some of their teams. And I know it for a fact. The decisions they make on the $2,000 (expense allowance for student-athletes)—it should have been $4,000. It’s a stipend. It’s not salary. It’s not ‘pay-for-play.’ It’s a stipend. It’s expenses. And then schools vote against it. All this stuff piles up to where people are going to say, ‘Enough’s enough.’”

While Calipari rails against the NCAA in the piece, he also takes time to point out that he’s got what he believes to be “maybe the best job in basketball.”

Maybe?

1. Vanderbilt at Kentucky. Rupp Arena is the only place in the conference that Vandy’s senior class hasn’t won. This could be Kentucky’s first undefeated conference season since 2003. Can freshmen talent translate into NCAA Tournament success?

2. LSU at Ole Miss.  Struggling Ole Miss searches for a way to win. LSU is playing its best basketball in three years.

3. Florida at Georgia.  Gators must get used to playing without reserve power forward Will Yeguete – lost to season-ending foot surgery. Bulldogs see fewer fans in the stands this year. Last in the conference in points scored could be one reason why.

4. Arkansas at Auburn. Tigers want revenge. Can the Razorbacks rediscover their defensive intensity?

5. Mississippi State at Alabama.  The Crimsom Tide welcomes back JaMychel Green but freshman Trevor Lacy is “doubtful.”  Meet Alabama’s project and prospect. Bulldogs have lost four straight and Rodney Hood is unlikely to play today.

6. Tennessee at South Carolina.  A lot on the line tonight for the Volunteers. Gamecocks just can’t shoot the ball.

7. College basketball on TV today.

8. Dennis Dodd: ”Occupy the BCS” has worked.

9. Florida picks up the option year on Will Muschamp’s contract.

10. Why getting Rutgers on their  football schedule is a win for Arkansas.

11. Early commitments usually keep their word.

Extras

12. The Big 12 conference has agreed on exit penalties for both Missouri and Texas A&M but it’s up to league members to give final approval.

13. Opening the curtain on the NCAA investigation at Oregon.

14. 11 years and a week since Dale Earnhardt died.

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that once Pittsburgh and Syracuse join its ranks, the league will indeed go to a nine-game conference football schedule.  According to an ACC presser:

“The format will consist of each team playing all six in its division each year, plus its primary crossover partner each year and two rotating opponents from the opposite division.  This six-year cycle allows each team to play each divisional opponent and its primary crossover partner six times (three home and three away) while also playing each rotating crossover opponent two times (one home and one away).

If you read MrSEC.com with any regularity, you know that’s the exact format that we’ve pushed as the SEC’s best method of protecting traditional rivalries and moving forward into a new age.

We still believe that the league will go to such a plan at some point in the future so long as the bowl-eligibility standard isn’t raised to seven wins.

But the SEC’s coaches and athletic directors — for now — are scared to death of a nine-game plan.  They don’t want to give up the cash brought in by an extra home game every year (even though the new TV contracts more than make up for the loss of a home every other season).  They cry that a nine-game schedule would kill the league’s national title hopes (even though just the opposite happened when the league expanded to eight games and added a conference title game).

Barring a nine-game format, we recently pushed this divisionless format… assuming the SEC could convince the NCAA to drop its schedule requirements for a conference championship game.  But even if the SEC moved to an eight-game, non-divisional plan — the best fallback option out there — its coaches and ADs would still have to live with this disappointing fact:

They’re scared of doing what the ACC is planning to do.

Where’s the fearless leadership of Roy Kramer when you need it?  (And don’t think there weren’t shrieks of terror when he added a title game and shifted the league from six to seven to eight contests per year.)